Wigan Warriors: Result a reward for resilience says Luke Thompson as Warriors ready to 'ramp up' training

The Warriors crossed for seven tries through seven different scorers after spending large periods of the opening 40 defending their own try-line, holding out Tony Smith’s Black & Whites under much pressure.

Jake Wardle bagged the only try of first half before second half scores came from Patrick Mago, Bevan French, Tyler Dupree, Jacob Douglas and interchange half-backs Jack Farrimond and Ryan Hampshire.

“It was really pleasing,” Thompson said following the fixture that also celebrated Scott Taylor’s testimonial.

“The score blew out a bit in the second half, but I felt like that was the reward that we got from the resilience we showed, especially in that first half.

“The first 20 we were really under pressure, especially on our own line.

“I thought we were really good.

“They had a lot of the ball and we kept turning them away.

“Sometimes it doesn’t go your way and you defend your line for long periods and you have to turn up like we did.

“It was really pleasing to see the hard work that we’ve done in pre-season shown there.

“They were throwing the ball around and there were plenty of offloads.

“It wasn’t really pretty for us, but we kept turning them away and turning up for each other and that’s how you win games.”

The 28-year-old prop forward featured in his second run out during the club’s pre-season schedule, having also started in the abandoned friendly against Wakefield Trinity at Belle Vue.

Matt Peet’s side will have a weekend free from games before opening their Super League campaign with a trip to the Mend-A-Hose Jungle to face Castleford Tigers in round one.

“I’m feeling good. I’ve had two run outs and that’ll do well on the lungs,” Thompson continued.

“We’ll review this game and take lots of positives from it, but there'll be a few improvements as well.

“We will work hard this week, with a full week’s worth of training with no game.

"We’ll really ramp it up and reset and roll into the Castleford game.”